Senate abortion bill boosts parental notification

Senate passes its abortion billMeasure to protect parental notification rights differs from the House's version

LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press |
July 26, 2006

WASHINGTON - A bill that would make it a crime to take a pregnant girl across state lines for an abortion without her parents' knowledge passed the Senate Tuesday, but vast differences with the House version stood between the measure and President Bush's desk.

The 65-34 vote gave the Senate's approval to the bill, which would make evading parental notification laws punishable by fines and up to a year in jail. Texas Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison voted for the bill.

The girl and her parents would be exempt from prosecution, and the bill contains an exception for abortions performed when the pregnancy posed a threat to the mother's life.

Differences exist between the Senate bill and a measure passed by the House last year.

Unlike the Senate bill, the House measure sets out a national parental notification law. It would require a physician who knowingly performs or induces an abortion on a minor who is a resident of another state to provide notice of at least 24 hours to a parent of the minor before ending the pregnancy.

Senate Republican sponsors said the bill supports what a majority of the public thinks: that a parent's right to know takes precedence over a young woman's right to have an abortion.

Bush urged the House and Senate to resolve their differences and send him a bill he would sign.